Originally Posted by
fini 
i asked the questions because drinking is often referred to here as this deep pleasure, and this deep pleasure and never having it again is something folks think of in regards to the BP.
Deep pleasure which is equated subcortically with survival. The mechanisms and 'forces' from which the Beast evolved are the same ones that keep us on this planet, and which have done so for eons. If the Beast goes, we might go with it. This is why science has yet to produce a satisfactory medicinal 'cure' for addiction. If someday science does, it will likely resemble chemical castration.
Originally Posted by
fini ...therefore it is confusing and useless to draw an analogy to something else that it seems highly unlikely has ever been deeply pleasurable.
Agreed.
Originally Posted by
tursiops999 One thing that helped me was to really focus on the idea of separation ... if I hear a thought that suggests drinking now or future drinking or 'I might fail' or any of those things, I can label it AV and recognize that, by definition, it must be the AV because I do not drink. It may temporarily seem like it's "my" thought, but I need not be confused by that, because I recognize it's identity through the content, through what it is saying.
Excellent advice, tursiops999. We may not know the Beast's form or appearance, but with AVRT, we can simply recognize the dog by its bark, so to speak. It is devious, but nevertheless conspicuous by its movement towards the supply.